These steps are further detailed below:

(i) Obtain carrier approval
Each carrier has the right to opt-in or out of any short code campaign for any reason. Carriers don't have to justify their decision. Quios uses the order form filled out for the CSC acquisition to obtain the necessary approvals. Approvals are typically obtained within 4 weeks of initial submission depending on the carrier and the type of campaign.

(ii) Provisioning of the CSC on carrier networks
Once approved, the carrier will initiate the technical activation process of the short code. This usually takes between 1 and 2 weeks depending on the carrier.

(iii) Account set up with Quios
Quios will provision a customer account within 24 hours after receiving the necessary customer information as per this account provisioning form.

(iv) Integration with Quios platform
Quios supports XML/SOAP (‘Qcaster4.0’) as well as SMPP for connecting your application to our gateway platform.
Click here for further information about our APIs.

(v) Carrier Certification
Carriers require end-to-end testing of applications before launch of service. Quios will coordinate such testing between customer, Quios, and the respective carriers.

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3.2. Can Quios help me obtain individual carrier approvals ?
Yes, Quios handles the approval process for you. You fill out the order form and we do the rest. We will identify possible problem areas and help you correct those so as to maximize your chances for speedy carrier approval.
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3.3. What are the carriers' approval criteria ?
Carrier approval criteria vary widely. Here are a couple of general guidelines:

• All carriers will reject adult, gambling, or violence related campaigns. AT&T Mobility will reject all campaigns involving an alcohol brand.
• Nextel, Boost, and Alltel will reject binary message campaigns (with content such as ringtones, icons, etc.). T-Mobile restricts Java applications and games to a pre-approved 'white list'.
• Verizon will reject all chat campaigns. T-Mobile limits chat campaigns to 99c per message, Sprint to 50c per message, and Dobson only allows unlimited chat for a monthly subscription fee.
• Sweepstake based campaigns are generally ok, but will take longer to approve because of legal review required prior to approval.
• T-Mobile will reject m-commerce based campaigns (where the value of the service is unrelated to the mobile phone).

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3.4. What types of content are acceptable ?
Carrier content guidelines can be summarized as follows:

• No adult, gambling, violence related content, or content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, defamatory, obscene, harassing, or racially, ethically or otherwise objectionable. Also not allowed are services that facilitate illegal activity, promote violence, promote discrimination, promote illegal activities, or incorporate any materials that infringe or assist others to infringe on any copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights.

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3.5. Can I launch m-commerce services ?
M-commerce services are services whereby the value of the service is unrelated to the mobile phone. Example: paying for your parking ticket by SMS, paying for WIFI access through SMS, etc. Carriers will evaluate their participation in m-commerce services on a case-by-case basis, except for T-Mobile who always rejects them.
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3.6. Can I launch subscription services?
Yes, all carriers support subscription services. It is very important to be clear about how end-users can opt-out of a subscription service. Cingular requires monthly subscription only.
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3.7. Can I launch non-premium services with my CSC?
Yes, you can. The Quios gateway supports both premium and non-premium messaging. Please see the pricing sheet for details on standard messaging. This feature is most commonly used in marketing campaigns where brands want the benefits of 2way messaging and easy to remember short codes, but without charging end-users. Also, customers can use this feature to send normal information messages to end-users.
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3.8. How do I connect my application to the various carriers?
By working with Quios, you will only need one connection to our platform, either using our SOAP API (Qcaster4.0) or our SMPP interface. Quios takes care of the routing and billing interfaces with the various carriers.
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3.9. Do I need a specific billing interface?
No. The advantage of working with Quios is that billing will be totally transparent for you. The billing with the various carriers will be triggered by the premium short code that is assigned to your campaign.
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3.10. What SMS features are supported with the various carriers?

• binary messaging: Cingular, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Nextel (please note: while binary messaging may be technically possible, some carriers will not approve premium campaigns that include binary messaging --- see 3.4
• handset delivery receipts: AT&T (TDMA only), Verizon, Sprint, Tmobile, Nextel
• dynamic originators: not supported

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3.11. Where can I find the Quios connection API details?
Quios offers a choice between an XML/SOAP based interface (called Qcaster4.0) or SMPP v3.4.
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3.12. I don't want to use an API, can Quios manage the entire campaign for me ?
Yes, marketing agencies and brands often rely on Quios for the execution of the entire campaign. Quios and the marketing agency/brand together design the message flow between the brand and the end-user, and Quios will manage the entire campaign on behalf of customer, providing customer will real-time traffic reports and management intelligence information to monitor the success of the campaign.
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3.13. Ok, I got it. I'm ready to start. What are the next steps?
Contact us to receive our FREE white paper and a customized quote.
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4. Receiving Payment

4.1. What can I charge my end user ?
Each network operator is responsible for setting its own range of tariff rates from which you can choose a tariff to charge your customer. Therefore it is possible that you may have to charge a different tariff from operator to operator. However, there are a number of price points that are available across all major US carriers: $0.25, $0.30, $0.35, $0.40, $0.45, $0.50, $0.59, $0.75, $0.99, $1.00, $1.25, $1.50, $1.75, $1.99, $2.00, $2.25, $2.49, $2.50, $2.99, $3.00, $3.99, $4.99, $5.00, $5.99, $6.99, $7.99, $8.99, $9.99, $11.96, $15.00, $15.96, $19.99, $29.99. Boost restricts premium SMS tariffs to $6.99. We highly recommend you use one of these common price points for your cross carrier campaigns since it will highly simplify your marketing and communication efforts to promote your service to end-users.
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4.2. Do carriers offer MO or MT billing ?
Carriers in the US charge on the Mobile Terminated message.
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4.3. What are the costs involved in setting up a campaign ?
There are three types of costs involved in setting up a campaign:

(i) Short code lease costs. These are the costs for acquiring a short code.
(ii) Short code provisioning costs. These are the costs for provisioning the short code on the various carrier networks.
(iii) Service charges. These are the costs for setting up and maintaining the service between you and Quios.

See price sheet for details.
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4.4. What are the short code lease costs?
Short codes are leased from Neustar, not from the carriers themselves. Neustar is charging a monthly fee for leasing short codes.

See price sheet for details.
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4.5. What are the short code provisioning costs?
Some carriers are charging a fixed fee to provision a short code on their network and complete the end-to-end testing for message routing and billing. Hence, the short code provisioning cost, which is a one-time cost, incurred with every new short code launch.

See price sheet for details.
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4.6. What are the service charges?
Service charges are the setup and maintenance fees charged by Quios for implementing a connection to the Quios platform, and maintaining such connection according to the agreed SLA. These costs include all technical and commercial assistance in implementing cross-carrier premium campaigns, such as obtaining carrier approvals, assisting you with the integration, performing end-to-end short code testing, etc..

See price sheet for details.
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4.7. What are the outpayments?
The outpayment rate is the rate Quios pays back to you based on the number of messages successfully billed by the carrier per month. Since rates differ by carrier, they are listed separately. Quios is the only provider offering the option of a 'Flat Rate' pricing model. For a fixed fee per month, we will pay you 100% of the outpayments we receive.

See price sheet for details.
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4.8. What is the difference between premium and standard rates?
Premium rates are the outpayment rates (Quios pays you) on premium billed messages. Standard rates are the message costs (you pay Quios) for non-premium billed messages.
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4.9. What about charge-backs?
Contractually, carriers have the possibility to credit end-users, and deduct such credit from the revenue share. If this occurs, Quios will provide a full statement of revenue share and charge-backs. Charge-backs are not a common occurrence.
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4.10. What are the payment terms for the short code lease charges?
Short code lease charges need to be paid upfront for the entire lease period. Only after such payment is made, can the approval process with the carriers start.
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4.11. What are the payment terms for the service charges?
Service charges need to be paid at least 7 business days prior to launch of the premium service.
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4.12. What are the payment terms for the outpayments ?
Carriers are paying Quios between 45 and 90 days after the end of the month in which the charge occurred. Quios will pay you within 30 days after receipt of carrier outpayment.
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4.13. What about end-user refunds?
You assumes full responsibility for refunding end-users when the situation arises. Quios assumes no responsibility for refunding end-users.
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4.14. Are there any message charges involved in premium transactions?
No. A premium transaction usually consists of an MO message requesting a service, and a premium charge MT message delivering that service, and triggering the billing transaction. There may be a small charge to you for receiving the MO message (depending on the price model you choose) but there is never a charge for sending the premium billed MT message.
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4.15. What is the end-user paying for the premium transactions?
A premium transaction usually consists of an MO message requesting a service, and a premium charged MT message delivering that service, and triggering the billing transaction:

(i) MO message: If the end-user's phone plan includes an SMS bundle, the MO will be deducted from this credit. If the user does not subscribe to an SMS bundle, they will be charged the standard rate for an SMS MO (for most carriers: $0.15, subject to change)

(ii) Premium MT message: End-users will be charged the specified premium charge for premium messages on all carriers except Verizon. On Verizon, end-users will be charged the premium charge PLUS the standard charge for receiving an MT message ($0.15, subject to change).

(iii) Non-Premium MT message: End-users will typically incur the regular MT charge on all carriers.

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4.16. How is revenue share determined?
Revenue share is determined from the confirmed billing statistics provided by the carriers. The carriers take their predetermined share of the revenue from a campaign and refund to Quios the remainder. Quios refunds to you your share of the revenue while retaining a prearranged share (except for 'Flat Rate' pricing in which case we refund you 100% of what we receive). You receive detailed reports and traffic statements.
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4.17. What is the revenue share and invoicing process?

• As soon as Quios receives payment from the carriers, Quios will provide you with a traffic statement, detailing the volume of premium transactions and associated revenue share amount.
• You will receive payment for your own revenue share within 30 days after receipt of the funds from the carrier. Quios employs a self-billing system, so you don't need to invoice Quios to get paid.
  

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4.18. Will I get paid for all my submitted messages?
You are compensated based on the number of messages the carriers report in their billing statistics. From past experience, the number of submitted messages and the number of billed messages often do not match. The Success Billing Ratio (SBR) is defined as the number of messages effectively billed by the carrier, divided by the number of messages submitted to the carrier. E.g. if you submit 100 messages and the carrier traffic report only lists 95, the SBR will be 95%. The SBR varies by carrier and by service. Subscription services tend to have lower SBRs than one-off services. Other reasons may be insufficient credit (only for prepaid cards), charge-backs, etc.
Given the low percentage of prepaid cards in the US, the SBR is expected to be reasonably high (>80%), and very much dependent on the precise nature of the service. You can significantly influence the SBR rate by ensuring proper communication of all relevant terms and conditions and setting the right service expectations. When end-users start complaining about a particular service, its associated SBR will drop significantly and carriers are likely to suspend the campaign.
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4.19. What management information reports are available?
Quios provides two types of reports:

(i) Extranet reports: include summary statistics and detailed CDRs for all messages managed by the Quios platform.

(ii) Carrier traffic reports: these are the reports received from the carrier, detailing how many messages were effectively billed.

Experience shows that these two reports will not match completely. See 4.18 for a more detailed explanation on why this is the case and how it will impact outpayments.
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4.20. Ok, I got it. I’m ready to start. What are the next steps?
Contact us to receive our FREE white paper and a customized quote.
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